Torah Sparks

United Synagogue (USCJ) is proud and delighted to bring you Torah Sparks, with insights and learning materials on the Parasha (Torah portion) of the week. Torah Sparks is produced by the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Each week there will be a Dvar Torah - a discussion on some aspect of the reading, by CY faculty, alumni and friends; a Vort - a short thought from Chasidic rebbes or other thinkers about some point in the text; and Table Talk - questions to stimulate discussion on the Parsha around the Shabbat table. Torah Sparks is available here on the Conservative Yeshiva's Shiurim Online Beit Midrash website, as well as by subscription to weekly graphical emails. Please select the Parasha you would like to see - it will display articles from each year. A printable PDF is linked at the end of each week's presentation.

Ketubot, Chapter 12, Mishnah 1

This mishnah deals with a case where a widow who already had a daughter married a man and cut a deal with him that he provide food and clothing for this daughter for five years.

Mishnah One

1) If a man married a woman and she cut a deal with him that he should maintain her daughter for five years, he must maintain her for five years.

2) If she was [subsequently] married to another man and cut a deal with him [as well] that he should maintain her daughter for five years, he must maintain her for five years.

a) The first husband may not plead, If she will come to me I will maintain her, rather he must send her maintenance to her at the place where her mother [lives].

b) Similarly, the two husbands cannot plead, We will maintain her jointly, but one must maintain her and the other give her the cost of her maintenance.

Explanation

Section one: Since he promised to maintain her for five years, he is obligated to do so, no matter what the circumstances, as we shall see below.

Section two: If this woman is divorced from this husband and goes and gets married again, and then cuts a deal with the new husband that he should maintain the daughter for five years, the first husband is still obligated, even though the daughter will now receive maintenance from the second husband.

The first husband may not say that he will maintain her only if she comes back to live with him. Even though the first husband intended to maintain her so that he could be married to her mother, he is still obligated. If necessary he must send her maintenance money to wherever she may be.

Finally, the two husbands cannot split the costs of the daughters maintenance. Rather each one must bear the full costs; one provides the actual food and clothing and another provides the monetary equivalent.